# TO M. A. AND M. I. ULYANOVS

Source: PSS vol. 55

18/V. 97.

I received this week, dear mama, two letters of yours (from 20. IV and from the 24th) and I am replying to the latest one with the first post, which leaves here this evening. Write me when a letter arrives from here, i.e., on which day. These letters took so long to reach me because they were forwarded from Krasnoyarsk here, and a great deal of time was spent on this forwarding. Regarding finances—I don't remember you asking me twice (as you write in your letter of 24. IV), or perhaps I forgot about it. While my finances were good, I didn't write about it. But before departing Krasnoyarsk (around the 26th-28th) I sent a registered letter requesting

a transfer of money: now, probably, they are traveling from Krasnoyarsk here.37 Then I wrote again from here that for now two weeks' worth will suffice me here.

As for your coming here solely in order to obtain a transfer for me—this is really not worth it at all. In the first place, I will probably obtain permission for a transfer myself if I start taking steps. In the 2nd place, the village of Tesinskoye is hardly better than Shushi.

According to all the preliminary information we gathered before, Tes is considerably worse than Shushi in terms of location, hunting, and so forth. In the 3rd place, the journey here is not such a simple matter—I have already written about this and am writing today in even greater detail to Manyasha, who accuses (jokingly) me of "terrible inhospitality." I still have no letter from Tes38 and, knowing nothing about it, of course I will undertake nothing: perhaps they will even request to be transferred somewhere else if Tes really turns out to be as bad as we have heard about it.

Shu-shu-shu—a decent enough village. True, it lies in rather barren terrain, but not far off (a verst and a half to two versts) there is a forest, although heavily logged. There is no passage to the Yenisei, but the Shush river flows near the village itself, and then a rather large tributary of the Yenisei not far off (1-1½ versts), and there one will be able to bathe. On the horizon—the Sayan Mountains or their spurs; some of them are completely white, and the snow on them hardly ever melts. So there is something to be said for the artistic side of things, and it is not without reason that I composed verses back in Krasnoyarsk: "In Shushe, at the foot of Sayan..." but unfortunately I composed nothing beyond the first line!

I am surprised that you write nothing whatsoever about sending me the rest of the books. It is a pity if they have not yet been sent (I wrote about this long ago from Krasnoyarsk*). Now is just the right time for the steamboats to reach Minusa (the water is rising substantially), so that the bundle could be easily transported here. But then it will be difficult again, because the Yenisei forms a multitude of shallows, and the high water will not last long. Perhaps, however, the books have already been sent?

* See the present volume, p. 28. Ed.

As for my complaints that you write to me rarely—this is all ancient history now, and the matter is explained by the astonishing (for us, unaccustomed as we are) slowness in receiving replies to letters. I wrote this, if I remember correctly, a month or a month and a half ago: which means this referred to those letters you were writing back in late March! But now I receive letters more frequently than before, and as for letters being lost—I don't think this is happening, because then the loss would have been revealed upon receiving subsequent letters. Apparently, except for the first letter sent by Anyuta to the station, not a single letter has been lost. Here, in the village, I will have to apply myself even more to correspondence, so it would be better if letters from "Russia" come more often.

You write: "Anya says the editorial office's reply has already been read." I didn't quite understand this. Did she read the reply or has the editorial office already managed to read it? Does Anya know any details about the quarrel with the editorial office, about the war waged against it by the gold prospector and Co.? Has she heard "the other side," i.e., anyone from the editorial office?39 I will await her letter.

Have you arranged for a newspaper to be sent to me? I sit here without any newspapers whatsoever. In Minusa it would also be necessary, since there is no reading room there.

My respects to Mark. He hasn't communicated anything about himself at all. I can inform him and Mitra that hunting seems to be quite good here. Yesterday I rode some twelve versts and shot both ducks and snipe. There is plenty of game, but without a dog and moreover for such a poor marksman as myself, hunting is rather difficult. There are even wild goats, and in the mountains and taiga (some 30-40 versts away, where local peasants sometimes go hunting) there are squirrels, sable, bears, and deer.

I regret not taking a waterproof cloak. It is essential here. Would you not send me one in a small parcel? Otherwise I don't know when I will get to the city again, or whether I will find anything decent in such a town-village as Minusinsk. Perhaps also (if money permits) I will ask Mark about purchasing a good revolver: for now, however, I don't see any need for it.

Your V. U.

What news of Columbus?* I heard that he married and that he is ill. Do you know anything about him?

Anatoly and Julia have been locked up in prison again: they didn't want to leave without waiting for navigation season, and so the governor-general ordered that they wait in the fortress jail!! A steamer to Yeniseysk was supposed to leave Krasnoyarsk around the 20th of May.

To Manyasha
18/V. 97.

I received, Manyasha, your extracts. Much merci for them. I hardly will go into them in detail before autumn—because now I am occupied more with lounging about and doing nothing.

Therefore, whether anything else will be needed and what exactly—I cannot say for now.

As to my "terrible inhospitality" I will dispute with you. After all, before being "hospitable," i.e., receiving guests, one must first of all find out where one will be living—and I didn't know this when I was living in Krasnoyarsk. One cannot consider it knowledge when I hear and say: "Shu-shu-shu," but have no idea of the path to this Shu-shu-shu, nor of the locality, nor of the conditions of life, etc. Then, before being hospitable, one must first convince oneself that guests will be able to reach there and be accommodated—I won't say comfortably, but at least decently. And I couldn't say this until quite recently, i.e., until the middle of May. But you are probably reading my letter already in June.

Which means the best half of the summer will be spent merely on gathering information and making preparations! Is that sensible? That the journey here is a rather troublesome and not very pleasant thing, you must certainly have seen from my letter describing the journey on horseback. It's fortunate that there was beautiful weather—and if there had been rain besides. The weather here is extremely changeable. Just yesterday I went hunting; the morning had lovely weather, the day was quite hot, summery. In the evening suddenly a terrible bitter cold wind rose up and rain besides. We all arrived covered in mud,

* This refers to I. Kh. Lalayants. Ed.

and if it hadn't been for the fur coat, we would have frozen on the way. The locals say that such occurrences in Siberia are not rare even in summer, so that people take fur clothing with them even in summer when they travel anywhere*. One cannot invite guests until one has settled in and looked around.

In any case, if ever it should be necessary to come here—it would be essential to send a telegram first from Minusa saying that the steamboats reach the city and that navigation has become established. Otherwise it is always possible that the steamer might break down halfway. The Yenisei forms a multitude of rapids and shallows, so navigation to Minusinsk itself lasts very briefly, and one must "catch" it. Even now I don't know for certain whether steamboats reach Minusa: I assume they do, on the grounds that the water is rising very substantially.

By the way, regarding telegrams. Our (volost) "postman" is in Minusa on Thursdays and Mondays (the days the post arrives in Minusa). Therefore, if it becomes necessary to send a telegram, it is most convenient to send it on Wednesday and Sunday, i.e., so that it arrives in Minusinsk in the morning on Thursday and Monday. Then I will receive it in the morning on Tuesday or Friday. Of course, one can send it with delivery through a special courier on another day, but that is much more expensive and only for the most urgent cases.

I am generally very surprised that you are reluctant to go abroad. Is it really more interesting to sit in a little village outside Moscow?? And if you travel to Moscow for music lessons, surely you could travel to a nearby town as well? I think, however, that you will already be reading this letter somewhere abroad.

I press your hand. Your V. U.

Send me all kinds of catalogues, especially from antiquarian booksellers and especially foreign ones.

in the journal

* I am thinking of acquiring a short fur coat for hunting trips.

TO M. A. ULYANOVA AND A. I. ULYANOVA-ELIZAROVA

Sent from the village of Shushenskoye to Moscow

First published in 1929

"Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya" No. 2-3

Printed from the manuscript